Union County, Ohio Biographies Project - Horatio Cox Hamilton
HORATIO COX HAMILTON
<> Horatio Cox Hamilton was born
near Irville, Muskingum Co., Ohio, September 24,1830, and was named
after Judge Horatio Cox, who was then a merchant of Irville, but who
now lives in Columbus, Ohio. He came with the rest of his
father's family to Union County, and landed in Richwood n the evening
of the 3d day of April, 1838. The family lived that summer in
town, while the father and older boys were employed in building a house
and arranging for the future. Horatio, with his two brothers-Norton,
who was older, arid George, who was younger were sent to school to
Matildy Manson, who taught in the old log schoolhouse on the lot now
occupied by C. W. Huffman as a residence; they were also required to
carry dinner to those who were at work clearing the farm, etc., so that
each forenoon, after intermission, they went home and got a good sized
market-basket full, and made the trip from town to the point where the
men were at work, which is the same as where the house of G. B.
Hamilton now stands, and after delivering their load of provisions they
would return to the school for the afternoon. When one thinks
that it was then an unbroken forest with only a path, and that the
average age of the three was only seven and a half years, it savors of
real romance. Horatio remained with his father, and worked, as
all farmer boys did in those days, for nine or ten months of the year,
going to school from forty to sixty days each winter, until the winter
of 1848-49, when he taught school in the Lenox District. The
following winter he taught in Richwood, and had to assume the
relationship of teacher to the same children and scholars with whom he
formerly went to school and with whom he had played and
frolicked. Some idea of' the labor performed may be had when it
is remembered that the school averaged fifty-six for the term, and for
the last two months perhaps seventy or more, and that every one brought
whatever book or books they could find about the house or borrow of a
neighbor, so that it was impossible to classify the school. In
the fall of 1851, and after he was of age, Horatio concluded that be
would add somewhat to his educational advantages, and for this purpose
he went to Delaware and matriculated and entered upon a college life;
but it was of short duration and amounted to two terms of six or eight
days each, so that he is what he himself calls a two-term graduate.
In the spring of 1853, he left his father and went
to Cleveland, and employed himself to H. G. O. Carey, to travel and
sell his medicines, the main article of which was Borrell's Indian
Liniment. The first six months were spent in canvassing Eastern
and Southern Ohio. In the fall of the same year, he was sent to
West Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. For four years he
continued to travel from place to place, loading at Chicago, Milwaukee,
Madison, Galena, Rock Island, Peoria, La Fayette and
Indianapolis. This gave him a very extensive knowledge of the
West, and enabled him to direct others to such places as they could get
good land at Congress price. The result is that very many
families are now in the West, and have homes to which they were
directed by him. He also took advantage of his knowledge of the
West, and invested the first thousand dollars he ever earned in land in
Black Hawk County, Iowa, getting for $1,000, 859 acres of as good land
as a bird ever flew over, and from which he realized a comfortable
fortune. It may be well to go back and say that in the summer of
1853, while at his uncle's, Irenias Springer's, he chanced to meet a
little school-girl who was destined to be a partner in his successes
and failures. Her name was Edmonia Dawson, a daughter of Dr.
Nelson Dawson (deceased), of Putnam, Ohio. Horatio C. Hamilton and
Edmonia Dawson were married in Davenport, Iowa, June 3, 1856. In
the spring of 1857 they settled on their land in Black Hawk County,
Iowa, and during the summer built a house and broke 120 acres of land.
In the fall of the same year the panic struck lowa, and its wild-cat
money went down and became worthless, and with it came ruin to
almost everybody and everything in Iowa. Corn, wheat, oats and potatoes
fell in price from $1.25 to a mere nominal price. This, with
other things, caused them to leave lowa and return to Ohio. In
the fall of 1861, they came to live with his father-Monia to take care
of the house and Horatio the farm. When the second call for
volunteers was made in 1862, he was appointed by Gov. Tod to recruit
the quota of Union County, under said call. His commission was
dated July 21, 1862, and on the 6th day of August he had one full
company and quite a number who were assigned to other companies,
principally to Capt. Lawrence's company, of the One Hundred and
Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On the 7th of August, he
was elected Captain of the company that was organized, and as such was
assigned to the Ninety-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The
regiment was sent to Kentucky and assigned to the command of Brig. Gen.
S. G. Burbridge, and the brigade was attached to Maj. Gen. A. J.
Smith's division of the Thirteenth Army Corps. The regiment
reached Kentucky on the 1st day of September, 1862. It will be
remembered that at this time there was a sentiment among the new
recruits that slaves and slave property were being wrongfully protected
by the army, and that it was no part of a soldier's duty to protect
rebel property, and catch and return slaves to their masters. It
began to be noticed that negroes were turned out of our lines with an
ever-increasing degree of reluctance; also that Capt. Hamilton was the
friend of the oppressed, and that he did not always obey an order to do
so inhuman a thing as to turn a fellow-man over to his rebel master,
even in obedience to a positive command of a senior officer.
Finally a boy, some fourteen years of age, came into the camp of the
Ninety-sixth Ohio, at Nicholasville, Ky., calling himself William Clay,
and reporting that his master was a rebel, and that he had thrown an ax
at him (Billy), and that he wanted protection. He found a friend
in Capt. Hamilton. and remained with him, as a servant, for some time,
until the army was ordered to move to Louisville. On the way, and as it
passed through Versailles, a person dressed in the uniform of a Union
soldier came representing himself as being on Maj. Gen. A. J. Smith's
staff, and that as such he ordered Capt. Hamilton to deliver the boy
Billy to him to be turned over to the jailer as an escaped slave.
This he refused to do unless the order came in writing from Gen. Smith
in the ordinary way, being countersigned by Gen. Burbridge and Col. I.
W. Vance of the Ninety-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This the
fellow refused to get, but notified him that be would be back in
fifteen minutes with a detachment of soldiers, and that he would take
the boy by force. Upon this the Captain turned to his company and
told them that if it was going to be a question or force, that they
might load their guns and prepare for the affray. That order the
company made haste to execute, and as they did so one company after
another did the same, until, as far as one could see, the road seemed
to glisten with the light of the sun as it was reflected by several
thousand ramrods which were being used to send home the ball that was
intended to perforate the hide of any man who would attempt to take
Billy by force. The effect of this preparation was that the
staff, officer gave up his notion of taking the boy by force at that
time, but notified the Captain that the affair would be deferred till
evening, at which time the boy would be taken by force and the Captain
put under arrest for disobedience of orders. This kept the matter
brewing in the minds of the soldiers. As soon as the army was
encamped for the night, the soldiers held an impromptu meeting, at
which speeches were made and resolutions passed approving the course of
Capt. Hamilton, and resolving that they would stand by him to, the
death. A committee was appointed to inform him of their purpose,
and he was soon waited on by a soldier who made known their action to
him, and requested that if any move should be made to take the boy by
force, that immediate notice should be given to the officers and
soldiers whose names were found on a card which was handed to the
Captain This uprising of the soldiers, occasioned by the refusal
of Capt. Hamilton to give up the boy Billy, had the effect to stop all
effort in the Army of Kentucky to arrest or return slaves to their
masters. On reaching Louisville, the army was ordered to go to
Memphis and Vicksburg. The boy could not be taken, and the only
thing that could be done was either to let him loose in Kentucky, to be
seized upon and returned to slavery, or to send him home to Ohio.
The latter the Captain chose to do, but had to force his way across the
river for fear of arrest; but he finally reached New Albany, Ind., and
bought a railroad ticket to Marysville for the boy, paying for it all
the money he had and going $1.25 in debt. When the boy reached
Richwood, it set everything in commotion. Some approved of the
course pursued by the Captain, others condemned. The party in
opposition called a meeting, and resolved that the "nigger" should not
be permitted to stay, and that they would return him to his master,
etc. They also resolved that Capt. Hamilton should not be
permitted to return to Richwood. The matter got into all the
papers of the State, and of other States as well. Letters came to the
Captain from every quarter, some approving and some disapproving his
course. One man, who was given to understanding the force of what
he said, wrote him that it was supposed that an effort would be made to
take the boy by force and send him back to Kentucky, but he said that
the Captain need not be alarmed, for that many thousands of men were
armed and ready for any move that might be made to return the boy.
Billy Clay and H. C. Hamilton both live in Richwood
at this time, and this story would not have been told if it had not
been for the fact of its having had so important a part in the warin
overthrowing the slave power, and in developing liberal and Christian
sentiment at home during the winter of 1862-63, while with Sherman's
army, Capt. Hamilton contracted a nervous disease, the external
evidence of which appeared as a cutaneous disease called lepra. from
the effect of which he became spotted as a leopard. In August
following, he resigned his office of Captain and came home, since which
time he has been a resident of Union County. He was prospered in
business, and bought and paid for the Hamilton homestead, and was
supposed to be a man of wealth until the panic of 1873, when, by bad
management and security debts, he, became involved, and sold his
property at a low figure and paid his debts. His wife, Edmonia,
was taken from him by death on January 29, 1877. On March 4, 1879, he
was married to Miss Molly Kendall, and they now live together in the
village of Richwood. In the mean time, he partially regained his
health as well as property, and bids fair for long life and future
usefulness. In religious matters, he is somewhat peculiar, and
cares nothing for the religion that one feels but goes his last dollar
on the religion that one does.